There are numerous initiatives presently in place to promote online safety.  And yesterday several thought leaders in the space sat down to discuss what is working, what is not, and ultimately laid out some recommendations for Congress to consider.  The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) and the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) invited representatives from the private, public, and academic sectors for a candid discussion on promoting online safety in our broadband-enabled, always-on world.

Anna Gomez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Deputy Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), delivered introductory remarks.  She, and later the panelists, frequently referred to the recently released report of the Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG), “Youth Safety on a Living Internet.”  Gomez believes that the Internet is essential in our modern society, but that children should be educated on using it wisely.  Urging that our best solutions towards online safety are behavioral, Gomez noted, “our first line of defense is education.”

The expert panel, listed below, believes that one size does not fit all in resolving online safety.  Panelists urged for coordination and collaboration among agencies and through public-private partnerships.  They also echoed Gomez’s call for education and empowerment.  Below are their recommendations to Congress:

• Larry Magid, Co-Director, ConnectSafety.org
  • Don’t respond with knee-jerk reactions, you don’t need to regulate everything.
• Michael McKeehan, Executive Director, Internet & Technology Policy, Verizon
  • Beware of unintended consequences, especially in data retention.
• Adam Thierer, President, The Progress & Freedom Foundation
  • One size does not fit all so use a diverse toolbox and layered approach.
• John Morris – General Counsel and Director of CDT’s Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project
  • Promote education and get resources into schools.
• Stephen Balkam, Chief Executive Officer, Family Online Safety Institute (moderator)
  • Pause before you legislate and look through the recommendations in the report.

NextGenWeb spoke with two of the panelists immediately following the event.  Watch the videos below for more from Larry Magid and Michael McKeehan.

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NextGenWeb is excited to share some very telling and important findings from a new study by Jonathan Orszag, Mark Dutz and Robert Willig that document a dramatic leap in the benefits enjoyed by Americans who use broadband. The study is titled “The Substantial Consumer Benefits of Broadband Connectivity for U.S. Households,” and was released this week by the Internet Innovation Alliance.

Key findings:

• Net consumer benefits from home broadband use soared to $32 billion a year—up from $20 billion in 2005. This rapid rise reflects expanding benefits in education, health care, employment, news, entertainment and civic affairs. More households now see high-speed Internet as a necessity.

• Continuing investment in more robust, high-speed networks would provide an additional $6 billion in annual consumer benefits.

• Significant broadband adoption gaps exist among different households. For example, 82% of Asian-American households have broadband, while only 57% of African-American households have it. Similarly, 84% of Gen Y households (ages 18-24) have broadband, while only 43% of senior-led households (65+) can say the same.

• Among those who are connected to broadband at home, households value broadband similarly across race. However, the same is not true across generations, with younger households valuing broadband significantly more than older households (45+).

…More powerful evidence of the rapidly growing value that broadband brings into our lives—and fresh insights that help us better understand the challenge of promoting broadband’s benefits to all Americans.

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Clinical Information Technologies and Inpatient Outcomes: A Multiple Hospital Study
By Ruben Amarasingham, MD, MBA; Laura Plantinga, ScM; Marie Diener-West, PhD; Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD; Neil R. Powe, MD, MPH, MBA
Archives of Internal Medicine
Volume 169, Number 2, January 26, 2009

• A 10-point increase in the automation of notes and records was associated with a 15% decrease in the adjusted odds of fatal hospitalizations

• Clinical information technologies hold great promise as a tool to improve hospital medicine. We found that, for certain conditions, greater automation of a hospital’s information system may be associated with reductions in mortality, complications, and costs, suggesting that information technologies that are properly designed and executed around clinical workflows could meet that promise.

Click here to read the full study: www.ama-assn.org

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Broadband Policy: Does The US Have It Right After All?
Jeffrey Eisenach
Progress & Freedom Foundation
September 2008

• The deregulatory American approach to broadband policy produces positive results, including high levels of investment and innovation, broadband availability, high and increasing levels of penetration, falling price, and high levels of consumer satisfaction.
• The American model for broadband has been widely criticized.   The criticisms do not hold up.  

Click here to read the full text.

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Home Broadband Adoption 2008
Pew Internet & American Life Project
July 2008

• Home broadband adoption increased from 47% from March 2007 to 55% in April 2008.
• Respondents age 50 and over reported a 26% growth in broadband adoption from 2007 to 2008.
• Monthly broadband bills are 4% lower in May 2008 than at the end of 2005, but monthly dial-up bills have risen.

Click here to read the full study.

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FCC Fifth Report
June 12, 2008

• Advanced telecommunications capability is meeting the challenge.   Capacity and availablity are increasing.
• Broadband depolyment is increasing to important contituencies like rural Americans, the disabled, and minorities.
• OECD rankings are not accurate.

Click here to read the full study.

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The Internet And The 2008 Election
Pew’s Internet and Democracy Center
June 15, 2008

• A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others.
• 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved.
• 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

Click here to read the full report.

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Net Neutrality Regulation Will Hinder Broadband Deployment
Christopher Wolf
Proskauer Rose LLP
June 12, 2008

• America could add 1.2 million jobs and $500 billion to the economy as a result of widespread broadband deployment.
• Network neutrality regulations have the potential to not only stymie the continued growth of the Internet and broadband penetration, but to increase costs and degrade customer services.
• Government should encourage investment through a hands off approach, the government can play its part in ensuring that these opportunities are provided to all Americans, with broadband access that is affordable and attainable, irrespective of geographic limitations.

Click here to read the full study.

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Would Mandating Broadband Network Neutrality Help Or Hurt Competition
Christopher Yoo, Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law
2004

• Network neutrality risks reducing consumer choice in content and applications.

Click here to read the full text of the study.

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Network Neutrality And Tiered Broadband Services
David P. McClure, The US Internet Industry Association
February 5, 2006

• Network Neutrality is a solution in search of a problem.
• Consumers have not been harmed, so no regulation should be implemented.

Click here to read the full study.

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